Four in 10 phone calls a ‘nuisance’

Diane King

Almost four in 10 incoming phone calls in the UK are nuisance calls, according to new research.

Which? analysed more than nine million phone calls made to TrueCall customers between January 2013 and September 2016.

They found that of a total of 3,231,920 calls made, 1,257,772 were unwanted, nuisance calls - 38.9 per cent.

Overall, calls from unavailable and international numbers are almost always unwanted. The research showed that 95 per cent from unavailable numbers and 94 per cent international calls were from nuisance callers.

Scottish cities had the the highest rates of nuisance calls in the UK, with Glasgow top of a table ranking 18 UK cities - more than half (51.5 per cent) of calls received were classed as ‘nuisance’. Edinburgh was second and Aberdeen fourth.

Calls to older and vulnerable TrueCall users in Scotland are also on the increase, an average of 11 per month with 41 per cent receiving more than 60 a month - at least two a day.